Mahabodhi Stupa at Land of Medicine Buddha

Buddha Statue for Alcove of Stupa(6/13/2018)-Stupa Update: June 13, 2018 By Gelongma Losang Drimay The Buddha statue that will go in the alcove of our stupa arrived mid-May, 2018. Project Manager, Denice Macy tells the story. Tell us about the design process: “In March 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche took me into his rooms at Kopan [Monastery] and showed me a lot of his statues and pointed out the facial features of statues that best represented the Buddha. He said, ‘See this face? This is how a good artist shows the Buddha’s face. The Buddha’s face is brilliant and beautiful, naturally, and good artists can show that.’ Rinpoche wanted it to be life-size; he was emphatic about that. “Rinpoche was completely working with the makers to design our statue to be similar to the one in Bodhgaya, at the Mahabodhi stupa. I visited the statue maker in Kathmandu right at the Boudhanath stupa. Rinpoche uses that statue [...]

The Vision

Rising from a verdant meadow with a Bodhi tree planted to the west, we are building a replica of the holy Mahabodhi stupa. This stupa will inspire all who see it to find refuge in the gentle path of wisdom, compassion and peace.

As you walk the path from our Great Prayer Wheel to the upper part of our land you will encounter this venerable stupa, an icon of peace rising from an open meadow. Standing nearly forty feet tall, we are building a replica of the most holy Buddhist pilgrimage site in India.

What is a stupa?

Stupas, one of the most ancient icons in Buddhist art, are powerful symbols of the mind’s limitless potential. In other words, they represent the mind of enlightenment. Stupas are filled with sacred images, mantras and the relics of holy beings. Building or sponsoring a stupa is a very powerful way to accumulate merit and purify negative karma.

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This stupa will be the central axis in a garden which will offer sites to sit and meditate, thousands of memorial stupas, gardens, grown as offerings to the Buddha, places to perform prostrations, ponds with places for peaceful travelers to rest and reflect.

The purpose of this stupa is to serve as an inspiration and a blessing to all who visit it. Simply seeing; making prostrations or circumambulating the stupa will be of benefit to all. Dedicated as a place to promote peace, we will have plaques to honor people such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and others who have through their tireless effort created a more peaceful world.

Stupas are said to promote harmony, prosperity, longevity, good health and peace. They bring blessings to the environment in which they are built, to those who build them, and to those who visit and venerate them. In this way, stupas ensure that the living quality of the Buddhist teachings will always be available.

“It has long been the tradition that wherever the teachings of the Buddha’s have been revered and practiced, communities of followers have built reliquary monuments known in Sanskrit as stupas and as chötens in Tibetan. And wherever they have been built, they have been regarded as sacred, for like religious images and scriptures, they represent aspects of enlightenment.”

—His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

History

The vision for the Land of Medicine Buddha stupa project emerged in the late 1990’s. Tangible progress began in 1999. In the following decade extensive architectural planning and land analysis work was done to build the 11,000 sq. ft. building that was modeled after the ancient stupa in Borobudur. In 2010 Kyabje Lama Zopa’s Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma), healer, oracle and advisor to many Tibetan lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, advised us to amend our plans in order to build a Mahabodhi Stupa on our land.

In 2011 Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche became the central pillar to our founders’ mandala by pledging $50,000 to support the building of our stupa. In January of 2013 the Chew family from Singapore became the second members of our founder’s mandala. We are looking for few more visionaries to join them it making the building of this great stupa manifest quickly!

After only a year of design and engineering, in January 2014 we received our permit approval to build our stupa at Land of Medicine Buddha!

Construction

The bhumi puja to bless the land was held on Friday, April 25, 2014, and on the following Monday, April 28, 2014 construction began.

Volunteers from the area helped to fill each chamber of the central tower, finishing the 9th level on May 22, 2016.

Two years later, on May 22, 2016, we filled the 9th and final chamber of the central tower. Many hands helped pass along the holy objects – sutras, mantras, tsatsas, etc. – from the truck, up the ladders, all the way to the top. All the spaces around the holy objects were packed with fragrant wood shavings and incense.

Find Us:

Updated Open Hours

Gift Store and Reception is Open:
• 10am to 5pm, every day

Main Gate is Open:
• 7am to 8pm, every day

Don’t get stuck on the wrong side of the gate. If you are an overnight guest, be sure to keep the gate code with you. If you are a pedestrian, be sure to be off the land before the gate closes automatically at the end of the day. Enjoy your visit. And thank you for coming to Land of Medicine Buddha.